Hopis demand end to stalemate; don't get it

(Times photo – Donovan Quintero)

Suspended Hopi Tribal Chairman Benjamin Nuvamsa, left, foreground, tells protestors and a security guard what they can and cannot do while a council meeting is held Monday in Kykotsmovi, Ariz.

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M ore than 150 Hopis showed up for what turned out to be a three-day tribal council meeting this week, demanding an end to the turmoil that has paralyzed their tribal government.

Wednesday, they left disappointed.

The council had attempted to tackle a burly agenda that included discussion of the tribe's lease with Peabody Western Coal Co., a controversial proposal to lease out the tribe's allotment of slot machines, and two major water projects.

By Wednesday morning, meeting without a quorum, all it had managed was to seat three elected representatives from Sipaulovi.

This, however, was heralded as a major victory for democracy by the vice chairman of Sipaulovi's governing board, who had been trying to get his village's representatives sworn in for the past three days.

"Once we have the right people in - the ones the village elected - the rest will follow," Wayne Sekaquaptewa said.

The question is, will it follow in time?

The U.S. Office of Surface Mining is due to render a decision on Peabody's life-of-mine permit application as early as next week, and the council has not been able to meet long enough to formulate a response to the plan's environmental impact statement.

Chairman Ben Nuvamsa, suspended by the council from all duties save chairing the meetings, has been unable to represent the tribe in negotiations for the Hopis' water rights to the Little Colorado.

And the 2009 budget needs to be adopted.

The council's next meeting is scheduled for Dec. 22, but with the continuing standoff between Nuvamsa and about half the council, it's unclear whether that meeting will have a quorum.

Sekaquaptewa blamed Wednesday's lack of quorum on an apparent boycott by the faction of the council that wants Nuvamsa out, and had opposed the seating of the Sipaulovi reps.

"All these members knew this meeting was to be here this morning," he said. "There are a lot of representatives - and this is just my opinion - that aren't taking their oath (of office) very seriously."

Most of the no-shows, in fact, were representatives who had voted the previous day to recess the meeting until Wednesday.

After recessing Monday when the crowd attending the meeting wouldn't fit into the council chambers, the council had agreed to reconvene Tuesday in the Veterans' Center, where there would be plenty of room for everybody.

Tuesday's meeting lasted only about an hour after Sekaquaptewa again introduced the matter of seating his village's elected reps.

On Monday, the matter had been remanded back to the village after it became clear that there were two people claiming to be the traditional religious leader of Sipaulovi, one of whom had previously asked the council to remove representative Cedric Kuwanimvaya and replaced him with his own appointee.

The other traditional leader, Lorena Charles, had wanted to keep Kuwanimvaya, whose term expires next November, in his seat and approved the three new representatives elected by the village.

Under the Hopi constitution, traditional religious leaders have the right to certify their villages' representatives.

On Tuesday, Sekaquaptewa told the council the village had met Monday night and agreed that Charles was their traditional leader, the election had been fair, and the new reps should be seated.

The council was poised to swear in the new reps when council member Dale Sinquah, who was himself appointed by First Mesa's religious leader to replace an elected representative, made a motion to recess. It passed 9-8.

But when Nuvamsa attempted to reconvene the meeting Wednesday, neither Sinquah, the other representatives who voted to recess the meeting, Vice Chairman Todd Honyaoma nor tribal secretary Mary Felter was present.

Only 10 representatives including the newly sworn in Sipaulovi contingent were present - two fewer than the 12 needed for a quorum.

Nuvamsa determined it was legal for the council to swear in new representatives without a quorum.

Mishongnovi village had also held a meeting at which it decided to bar its traditional leaders from interfering in tribal politics, and village resident Howard Dennis Jr. asked its elected representative, Marilyn Tewa, to take a seat at the council table. She had been removed by the council at the request of her village's traditional leader, Vernon Seiweyumptewa. Tewa strode to the front of the room to the applause of the crowd.

As it had after the meeting had recessed early Tuesday, the remaining council members decided to remain at the Veterans' Center and listen to the concerns of the crowd.

The attendees hung around until about 2:30 p.m., mostly flinging angry comments toward Honyaoma, whom they accused of starting the governmental chaos by convening the meeting at which Nuvamsa was suspended, then suspending all three appellate court justices.

After Monday's meeting, Honyaoma had circulated a memo indicating he was thinking of resigning in order to restore peace to the tribe.

"Why don't you just do it?" shouted one woman.

On Wednesday, with Honyaoma nowhere to be found, Dennis suggested an informal vote on the matter.

"All in favor of taking him out raise your hands," he said.

"It's unanimous," he declared after nearly every hand in the room shot up.

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